Chance plays a large part in most board games. The toss/throw of a dice is the most common means of producing an event with a random outcome. Obviously, in the case of a dice, it is the determination of which side lies uppermost once the dice comes to rest (visible to all game participants) which determines the number, symbol or colour as the random outcome. Such a device produces an ideal probability that the result will be one of six outcomes. Other random event apparatus include the toss of one or more discs (coins), the fall of a ball into one of 37 (European) or 38 (American) spaces located on a horizontally spinning wheel, etc.
A large and important part of most board games is the playing space, typically a planar surface marked with a route over which a player's token, marker or piece is moved. Each possible location of a token on the planar surface will have a predetermined value or significance. The shape of most planar playing surfaces is square or rectangular, but a variety of shapes can be used. There can also be various routes over which the playing token can be moved. Tokens are typically moved in a predetermined direction in accordance with the result of the random event.
There exists a small number of games which incorporate three-dimensional shapes and a three dimensional route into the playing space. A classic example of a three-dimensional game is Mousetrap™ where it is an aim of the game to build an intricate framework which, at a predetermined time in the game, comes into play such that a trap is lowered onto a playing piece of a competing player located in the vicinity of the trap.
Typically however, the playing routes of most games are permanently marked and all possible routes are predetermined.
Skill in most games is created by requiring the participants to risk a penalty for the failure to appropriately respond to an event or wrongly predict an event or to fail to have the knowledge of a particular fact, and in the alternative to be rewarded for a correct response, prediction or fact.
A number of games can be played so that the participants can wager their own money so that the penalty or reward is purely monetary rather than the thrill of being better than other participants at accumulating whatever is the currency of the game (ie points, tokens, play money, etc.).
It is an aim of the method and apparatus described herein to provide an entertaining game of chance which also requires skill, on a playing surface which is capable of changing with each occurrence of a random event and which may be played for monetary or other reward.